Chris is President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest (PPGW). She is a University of Washington political science graduate and a PP leader for 30 years, 22 as CEO. PPGNW is a $42M; 27 health center; Alaska, Idaho, and Washington State affiliate; in three different time zones, providing medical services and sexuality education for over 100,000 each year. In her tenure Chris has changed laws and health policy in a number of states, proved that it is sex discrimination for employers to fail to cover contraceptives if they cover other pharmaceuticals in employee health plans, co-founded Planned Parenthood Online PPOL – now serving close to 3M visitors/month, and is the Board Chair of Afaxys, an organization she helped to found to secure supplies of affordable contraceptives for Planned Parenthood affiliates, health departments, and health organizations serving low income women.

Health insurance should encourage heavy use of preventative care, and insure against medical bankruptcies. Pregnancies can go seriously wrong, and most wage earners cannot take an unexpected $75,000 hospital bill, in stride.